[thelist] Frames vs Divs

[Christian Heilmann]

> My question is: shouldn't the loading time be around the same, since
> the machine will cache the "heavy" content (images etc) in the divs
> that remain the same anyway? Is the loading time actually around the
> same for frames and divs and I am just imagining things? Is there any
> real advantage in using frames over div? Is it worth even mentioning
> frames these days?


There is a loading time and there is a perceived loading time. If you
use frames, the documents inside the frames don't need to be rendered
again, hence it seems the page is faster as they don't change at all.
When you don't use frames, the whole page gets rendered again and the
elements only appear when the whole document and dependencies is
loaded.

A workaround would be to use Ajax to load the content parts and get
the same effect.

The perceived speed of frame pages may be quicker, but the annoyance
of not bein able to bookmark, hard to navigate with assistive
technology or not being able to view source weigh heavily on the
downside.

-- 
Chris Heilmann
Book: http://www.beginningjavascript.com
Blog: http://www.wait-till-i.com
Writing: http://icant.co.uk/